The process of finding and hiring a new employee can be a lengthy one. But there are few steps that can’t be outsourced, at least in part. Here are 25 HR-related chores — from recruiting to writing job listings to hiring freelancers to creating an internship program — that can help you find a new employee without spending too much time on the process.

Gathering references: Double-checking on an applicant’s background doesn’t mean that you have to call every place they’ve ever worked. Sites like LinkedIn bring all their references together in one place.

Recruiting: Many staffing agencies will handle the recruiting side of finding a new employee, providing you with a few options to choose between.

Finding specialized employees: While the typical staffing agency may not be able to find and evaluate candidates for very specialized position (such as engineering or C-level management), there are recruiters who specialize in finding specific types of employees and who maintain networks in those fields.

Testing: When hiring a new employee, it’s important to make sure that their skills are at the level you need them to be. Many staffing agencies will test applicants for you. You also can use an online system like Valtera.

Managing a probationary period: Rather than putting a new employee on the books during a probationary period, many temp services will allow you to use them for payroll and insurance for a probationary employee.

Drug testing: You can send your prospective employees to a service near where your company is based. Drug Testing USA provides a directory of local services.

Vetting home help (babysitters)

Managing new employees: Depending on the size of your business (or whether you’re looking to hire help personally), you can outsource managing your employees. For instance, many virtual assistants can manage other virtual help.

Sorting through applications: One of the hardest parts of hiring a new employee is to sort through the many applications you’ll receive if you post an ad. Using a virtual assistant or a local service to help you sort through applications can speed up the process significantly.

Placing classified ads: Posting jobs on sites like Craigslist can be a lengthy and dull process and if you want to get a wide reach for your ad, there are a lot of sites you should use. A virtual assistant can easily handle the task of posting those job listings, though.

Writing job listings: If writing isn’t your strong point, there are many freelance business writers who will handle any communications you have in mind, including crafting job listings that will pass legal as well as interest the right sort of applicants.

Collecting applications on an on-going basis: If you routinely need more help — either with a position with high turnover or a position where new applicants are constantly submitting materials — having a virtual assistant process applications and weed out those that you don’t need to bother with can speed things up.

Hiring a freelancer: Bringing in a creative freelancer can be a simple process. Sites like GeniusRocket let you sort through a variety of freelancers in a short time.

Reviewing portfolios: When you’re working with many creative professionals, the question to hire them is based on portfolios rather than work history. But that means that someone has to look through a whole stack of portfolios to narrow down the pool. Handing that task off to a virtual assistant is easy.

Setting up payroll: Hiring an outside company to handle payroll can reduce the paperwork you face significantly, as well as make it easier to get your employees their checks every month.

Providing benefits: There are numerous organizations that offer benefits to small businesses, and they generally can even handle all of the paperwork as well.

Providing a new employee with access: When you add a new employee, you typically have to set up new passwords and provide him with access to your company’s tools. Even if you don’t have an HR department to handle those steps, you can still hand the project off to a virtual assistant who you trust.

Creating an internship program: If you’re interested in bringing a few interns into your organization, contacting a local college or university is an important next step — many will do the hard parts of getting your program set up, as well as helping you find the interns.

Negotiating new deals: Some lawyers provide negotiating services to help you and a new employee agree on the terms of the employment contract.

Writing employment contracts: Even if you use a boilerplate contract with each of your employees, it’s important to have a lawyer who is knowledgeable about employment law write the original contract.

Evaluating the hiring process: It’s not unheard of for an applicant who didn’t get the job to have concerns about discrimination. Having an outside organization specializing in employment law evaluate your hiring process can help you determine if there are any problems that could lead to lawsuits down the road.

Conducting background checks: In order to make sure that you’re comfortable trusting a new employee with your business, running a background check can be useful. Private investigation firms typically handle such requests, but you can also use an online service like IntegraScan.

Getting clearances: Depending on the type of work you do, your employees may need to have certain levels of clearances. At the most basic level, that means just a very thorough background check and there are many firms that will help you make sure that all of your employees are cleared to work for you.

Writing interview questions: There are a number of interview question banks, which will allow you to avoid writing interview questions entirely. One such resource is JobInterviewQuestions.org.

Hiring, entirely: There are many companies that have made it possible for you to outsource the entire hiring process. With a professional employer organization (PEO), you can hand off everything to do with hiring to another company. You just have to pick the employee.

Thursday has been blogging about a variety of subjects for over six years. She has written extensively about productivity and is always looking for another way to make life easier. Also she has helped the writing service essaybasics.com to organize their work life.

I think you should also include blogging and social media as projects to outsource, specially nowadays when businesses are moving on the World Wide Web – and maintaining a web presence is crucial. Outsourcing the problem, instead of clear solutions are doomed to fail. Thanks for the tips.